The ramblings of a pilgrim through time, space, and life.

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Urine and the Sabbath

A couple of fun things going on in my life right now. Wednesday I will be sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court as a Licensed Legal Intern. I am pretty pumped about that. That same day I am picking up a vehicle to drive to the J. Reuben Clark National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. We will be there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday morning we will leave to drive back here to Oklahoma City and be ready for classes on Monday. Please keep us in your prayers for safe travels! Now I just have to figure out how I am going to work out Valentines Day, without me here until late at night.

School continues along and I think this definitely has to be my most boring semester. Administration, Agency, Corporation, and Constitutional Law are all very dry. Some of the professors don’t help the situation a whole lot either. Administration Law holds some interest for me, probably because I am most familiar with it of all the classes. But hands down, my favorite class of law school is Debtor and Creditor Law, aka Consumer Bankruptcy. While the material is interesting, the professor just makes it come alive. He is there to help us become lawyers and it is manifest. Other professors pontificate, alienate, and other motives which make it less than the best learning atmosphere. Professor Vaughn comes speaking to us of personal experience and walks us through the adventure of consumer law. Oh that all professors were just as good. After one of the classes, I told him how much I appreciated his style. He remarked that he initially thought about how smart he could look, and how he was going to make us all grovel at his knowledge. He then realized that benefits nobody and the best approach is to make the material come alive and to make it interesting. Boy am I glad he does. We have some good laughs too. Our Con Law professor enjoys himself too, but he does all the talking and it turns into a long class period.

Some exciting news on the home. We had some friends who replaced some appliances. We jumped at the opportunity to replace our dishwasher with a much newer version. It is now in place and the old one is listed on Craig’s List, ready to go out to the highest bidder.

We have a squirrel living in the attic in which he marks his territory and we live with the intoxicating smell of a dehydrated squirrel. I loaned a book in exchange for a squirrel trap, so here is for hoping (s)he falls for peanut butter crackers. I cannot wait to get rid of him. I patched the hole he made several weeks ago. I am surprised he lived this long. Unfortunately, we have a roof leak which probably replentished him with moisture. At least he didn’t die between our new ceilings and the old lathe and plaster ones. Come summer time we would be enduring something far worse than the once a week or so urine smell. I would have to rip up some of those old ceilings to find him, and in cramped spaces, I can see me vomiting over the rotting corpse of a squirrel while we are both covered in insulation, dust, and plaster.

A couple of thoughts from the Old Testament reading before I stop tonight. I hear from time to time that the only sacrifices to the Lord were blood sacrifices. Those individuals need to read the Old Testament a little closer. There are flour, bread, fruits, and all sorts of other things that were part of the law of sacrifices. “Then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord…the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine…two wave loaves” and more! Leviticus 23:10, 13, 17.

The thing that has fascinated me about Leviticus has always been Chapter 25. The implications of this chapter in the modern world have always made me think. What if we did this now? It relates particularly to the Sabbath. Today we celebrate and honor the Sabbath Day. Why don’t we celebrate the Sabbath Year? Why don’t we hold Jubilee? It would completely revolutionize our economic system and all the ways we look at our society. I mean, if we keep the Sabbath Day now, it would revolutionize our country.

“Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall the increase thereof be meat.” Leviticus 25:4-8.

What if we took the entire 7th year off and dedicated it unto the Lord? Serve missions? Focus only on our families? Travel a little? The possibilities are endless. Does that mean the whole country would have to take the same year off? I don’t know what the ancient practice was, nor do I know if we could all take it off at the same time. A GDP of 0 for a year? Geez could we complain? Sunday is a day off, and the 7th entire year. Much better deal than any of us get now. Go to school for a year, is that upholding the Sabbath?

Ah, and then the Jubile! “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you: and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” Leviticus 25:10.

So the thought comes, how in the world shall I ever make it through that year? How in the world can I afford to do what is being asked for me. To save up, prepare, and to endure that 7th year. Well, the Lord has an answer for us. “Then I will command my blessings upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.” Leviticus 25:21. How is that for a blessing. Not only will we have enough for that one year, but we will have enough for 3 years. Talk about a great return. Some of that would have to go to restarting that new year, but wow, there will still be plenty left over.

Anyhow, I won’t go on anymore, but there is an economic system in Leviticus 25! What if we were to live it today? How fundamentally different would we be. Forgiving everyone’s debts every 7 years would be beautiful. No more house payment. No usury. It even talks about the suburbs in Leviticus 25:34!

There are many great things in the Old Testament. Unfortunately we are all too smart and intelligent to consider giving another chance to the Spirit of the old ways. We are more knowledgeable today, things are different. So far, I doubt that, especially when I see our pride in knowing things are certainly different for us now when we seem to keep falling to the same old sins.